Joe Cole, Lille and Liverpool: A solution

The Premier League Owl

The Lille manager is on record as saying that he would welcome Joe Cole back to the French club with open arms, which is in stark contrast to the cold shoulder treatment he’s receiving from Brendan Rodgers.

For the record, plunging an unfit player into a League Cup game against a full-strength Premier League team, taking him off after forty-five minutes, and then closing the book on his career at the club isn’t great management. Give Joe Cole confidence and he’ll be an asset, but publicly belittle him and you probably won’t see much of a return.

Still, the Lille exit strategy…

Lille manager Rudi Garcia has said that the only obstacle to Cole returning to France in January is of a financial nature, and so surely that’s something the player can meet them halfway with? Liverpool are not going to command a big fee for him - presumably they’d be only too delighted to get him off their wage bill - so this is solely to do with wages. Lille wouldn’t even have to stump up for the Eurostar ticket, given that Rodgers would probably happily swim across the Channel with the player strapped to his back if that mean getting shot of him.

This is the point at which a player, for the sake of elongating his career, has to accept that he might…might…not be worth £90,000/week. What do you think, Joe, can you stomach the idea of dropping those demands in return for being an actual footballer again?